Tout d’abord, merci de tout coeur d’etre venu sur mon blog Dr Rosling!
How neat that someone, let alone Dr Rosling himself, should take the time to view my first “attempts” at blogging!
After viewing the brief but informative Gapcast#1, I again found the disconnection between health and economic growth interesting. Where academia was awarded between 1953-82 in Sweden for its research and discovery, it appears the public did not directly benefit, at least physically. Or perhaps this period took time to produce results that could be implemented to the masses? In any case, I still think this trend, again, leads us to a need to coerce our priorities to shift away from economics to quality of living. Maybe we are deceiving ourselves in measuring our progress in number of awards or amount of funds for research. I hear more and more often our education system is failing us, our obesity rate is climbing, and every time I turn on the TV there’s a new ad for a new ailment whose cure will “bring back your life.” All our cures and quick fixes don’t suggest we’re a healthier happier, and more powerful nation, but the opposite.
Gapminder’s visualizations, like IBM’s ManyEyes, have great power to catalyze conversation by getting straight to the point. The graphics almost fall into a new category, combining kinetic typography and information architecture into a compelling animation, rich in data, but not as overwhelming as a complicated, static chart can be. They embody all of the principles of good design that has a real purpose. I am inundated with comical, frivolous flash animations so often, that it is refreshing to see data used in a similar simple, format to create such an effective, narrative visualization.
